School Climate

Students’ Sense of School Belonging

To develop the Sense of School Belonging scale, students were asked how much they agreed with five statements about their attitude toward school. Exhibit 6.6 presents students’ very positive responses. On average, more than half (59%) had a High sense of belonging, 33 percent had Some sense of belonging, and only 8 percent of the fourth grade students had Little sense of belonging. A higher sense of school belonging was related to higher average reading achievement (518, 505, and 495, respectively).